Cateye Loop lights

Emergency lights are two a penny these days, and you can pick them up for peanuts on websites like Dealextreme. So why pay twenty quid for the Loop lights? Because they're really good, that's why. Easy to fit, bright enough to be properly useful around town and visible from a wide angle, the Loop lights are a class above most of their rivals in terms of performance.

The lights themselves are made from two pieces of translucent plastic which house a bright LED and a couple of 2032 button cells. The two halves clip together without any tools and have kept the elements out without any trouble though a dab of silicone grease would probably improve weatherproofing further. The mount is a simple bungee with a cord lock that also sports a hook. it'll stretch round your bars or frame - the back of the light is curved to fit - and you can use the cord lock to secure the light to buttons and zips too.

Operation doesn't really require you to nose through a manual - click it once for on or twice for flashing. You won't want to venture off road or anything but about town they throw out plenty enough light, and that light is visible whichever way you're looking at the Loop. Even if you've hung it from your bag and it turns round to face your back you still get a decent amount of light coming through the base. In fact they're so visible from acute angles that the front one can get a touch annoying on your bars; I ended up fixing it to the head tube to keep it out of my line of sight.

We've been running the loops on the daily commute for the last month and left them on overnight a couple of times and they're still going strong. When you do end up having to fork out for new batteries, button cells aren't always the cheapest but 2032s are among the easiest to find at your local cobblers, or online. You can get 50 for seven quid off the space-web, which should keep you flashing till they invent some kind of free power source made from air to run them from.

Verdict

The Loop lights are among the best emergency lights we've tried. They're easy to fit, bright, have a good angle of visibility and keep going for ages. They're best with a big light but good enough to rely on on their own. Okay they're not cheap at £20 but they're better value than plenty of the cheaper options out there.

Dave is a founding father of road.cc and responsible for kicking the server when it breaks. In a previous life he was a graphic designer but he's also a three-time Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling world champion, and remains unbeaten through the bog. Dave rides all sorts of bikes but tends to prefer metal ones. He's getting old is why.

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STATO[546 posts]8 years ago

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Been using the rear one of these for a while, much better than the LD100. Fitted to my helmet at the moment and it really easy to turn on/off and gets me seen really well. Top marks Cateye!

yup. easier to fit to more different parts of your bike, better all round visibility, more solid construction.

they're better than Backupz too in that they're not necessarily brighter but what light there is is better used, and again you can fit them easily to almost anything. Also, it's a doddle to change the button cells, the top just pops off unlike the Backupz which have a fiddly seal and screws the size of those particles the Large Hadron Collider is trying to find.

Just bought a couple of loop lights and outfitted my bike with them, and you are right they are worth the investment, they offer great visibility and the Button Cells last longer then regular batteries, probably have a low consumption.

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